Joe Jansen wrote:
> OK, I re-wired my "fixture". I ran all 5 wires to the circuit. Still no
> joy, with the same message as above.

How much power does your circuit draw?  How much capacitance is from Vdd to
ground?  The EasyProg is intended for programming bare chips.  It can
perform in-circuit programming as long as the circuit around the target PIC
doesn't take much power (a few 10s of mA), doesn't have much capacitance (a
few uF), and otherwise mostly gets out of the way during programming.  It
might be a good idea to post your schematic.

> Does J1 need to be jumped in order to use the ICSP?

No, leave it open.  J1 is for debugging and disables the 5 second host
protocol timeout.

> When I run pic_prog, I get a brief "solid state" on the LED, and then it
> goes back to dim.

That makes sense.  This indicates that the programmer is talking to the PIC,
but the host gives up when the target chip can't be verified to be what you
specified.

> In order to make sure that the chip wasn't damaged during soldering, I
> pulled a chip out of the tape, set it on the workbench, and tried
> programming the bare chip. Same result.

That should have worked.  Either there is a problem with the programmer or
your connections to the bare chip.

> I am running out of ideas. If anyone has any other suggestions to
> check, let me know, please. I will keep trying on this end.

Forget about your circuit until you can program the bare target chip.
First, check the cable and the pinout to make sure that everything is wired
correctly.  You should be getting the programming lines from the labeled
bare pads or the RJ-12 connector, not the ZIF socket.  And there must not be
anything plugged into the ZIF socket at the same time.

If all that looks right, put a jumper on J1 and run TEST_PICPRG.  Do HELP to
see the list of commands, although that won't explaing them completely.  Put
a scope of voltmeter on the Vdd pin of the PIC and enter VDDNORM.  The Vdd
pin should jump to 5V.  Now enter VPPON.  The Vpp (MCLR) pin should jump
from 0V to about 13V.  Check Vdd and make sure it's still 5V.  Now check PGC
and enter CLKH.  It should jump from 0V to 5V.  Now same with PGD as you
enter DATH.  Do CLKL and verify that PGC is low but PGD remained high.  Do
QUIT to exit, which will also power down everything.

I expect you will find a problem with the above test sequence.  Don't forget
to remove J1 when done testing.

> Olin, is there anything you can suggest to make sure that I built the
> programmer properly? Can I check continuity from P1-4 to P6, for
> example? What makes me curious is that I can program the DIP package
> that I have in the ZIF, but the ICSP isn't working.

The EasyProg has two different Vdd and VPP drivers.  This is to support
different pinouts in the ZIF socket.  From page 1 of the schematic you can
see that only VDD18 and VPP-62X are used with the external programming
connections.  If either of these were broken, external programming wouldn't
work, but 28 and 40 pin PICs in the ZIF socket could still program
correctly.  Have you tried an 18 pin PIC in the ZIF socket, like a 16F627,
16F628, 16F648A?  Have you checked that you remembered to solder the bottom
of the RJ-12 connector?  It snaps in nicely and can feel properly mounted
without being soldered.  (Guess how I know this).


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